KUALA LUMPUR: Datuk Seri Najib Razak and his family were given a free ride on the Putrajaya MRT line on Wednesday (June 15), a day before its official launch because he asked for it on Twitter, says Datuk Mohd Zarif Hashim.

“As you know, he actually tweeted that he loved to be on the train. We replied to the tweet,” said the MRT Corp CEO during a joint press conference held after the launch of the first phase of the Putrajaya MRT line at the Sri Damansara station on Thursday (June 16).

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Najib had posted photos of him riding the MRT along with his family members on Facebook on Wednesday.

The Pekan MP’s sneak peek came before the officiating ceremony by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob at the Batu MRT station on Thursday morning.

Veteran journalist R. Nadeswaran, in a recent commentary in MalaysiaKini on June 16, questioned why MRT Corp invited Najib to a sneak preview to the Putrajaya MRT train on June 15.

Nadeswaran also claimed that it was an unfair move to invite Najib, as MRT did not take into account the public sentiments when it made such a decision.

On Sept 15, 2016, the construction of the Putrajaya line was launched with a groundbreaking ceremony by Najib at the Putrajaya Sentral MRT station construction site.

The first phase of the Putrajaya line, which begins operations at 3pm Thursday (June 16), covers 12 stations - Kwasa Damansara, Kampung Selamat, Sungai Buloh, Damansara Damai, Sri Damansara Barat, Sri Damansara Sentral, Sri Damansara Timur, Metro Prima, Kepong Baru, Jinjang, Sri Delima, and Kampung Batu.

During peak hours, the trains will arrive every four minutes, with each trip capable of ferrying 1,200 passengers.

The first phase of the Putrajaya MRT line allows passengers to change over to KTM stations at Sungai Buloh, Sri Damansara Timur (to Kepong Sentral) and Kampung Batu.

By January next year, Phase two of the Putrajaya MRT completed and trains will pass through the entire route from Kwasa Damansara to Putrajaya, marking the end of the line.

In conjunction with the launch of the first phase of the Putrajaya MRT line, there will be free rides for a month across all public transportation services under RapidKL and also KTM within the Klang Valley, beginning Thursday (June 16).